Best Frenemies (10 page)

In the meantime, though, she knew of a way to at least get Nikki more incorporated into the Nerd Herd. Once she got home, she started writing a mass email to everyone in the class.

“Hi,” Alice said, meeting Cassidy at the bus stop Monday morning.

“Hi,” replied Cassidy. The two girls stood quietly, their hands gripping their backpack straps, each staring out at the street. It was possibly the first time the two had not had much to say to each other—ever. “How was your weekend?”

“Fine,” Alice said. “How about yours?”

“Nice!” Cassidy said brightly. “We—I mean, us in the musical—had rehearsal and then went to Walker Bros., so that was fun.”

Alice had to fight the urge to say “I know.”

“I missed you, though,” Cassidy added with a shy smile. “It's not the same without someone to steal my strawberry waffle.”

“Hey,” Alice said suddenly, coming up with a brilliant idea that was infinitely better than this current
conversation, where Alice was afraid she was going to spill the beans that she had evacuated Walker Bros. in order to avoid running into her best friend. “Want to sleep over tomorrow night? Let's have old-fashioned you-and-me time. It's been too long.”

“Um . . . sure!” Cassidy said. “I don't have rehearsals tomorrow night so . . . definitely!”

“Great!” said Alice, and luckily, just then, the school bus turned down the street. This could be exactly what she and Cassidy needed, although Alice felt like she had better put on a great sleepover, or else. If it felt as awkward as their last couple of encounters . . . well, they might be in trouble.

“Hey, guys,” Alice announced at the end of Mr. Nichols's class. “Just a reminder. Anyone who wants to come to my house after school today for study group is welcome.”

“Thanks for sending that email, Kinney,” said Aaron. “I'm in.”

“Me too!” Christy and Todd nodded.

“Nikki, you're in too, right?” Alice said. Nikki blushed but nodded. Alice figured that if she could get Nikki to blend in as part of the Nerd Herd, maybe she could finally get Cassidy and Nikki to coexist, too.

Ironically, for a bunch of smart kids, the Nerd Herd was kind of a flop when it came to actually functioning as a study group. All Christy, Aaron, Nikki, and Alice had been able to do since they came over to Alice's was snack on popcorn, drink pop, and goof around. “Once Todd comes, we'll get to work, promise,” said Aaron.

Alice didn't mind, though, because she had other plans on her mind.

“Hey, did you know that Nikki lived in Hawaii for a little bit?” Alice announced.

“Really?” Christy asked, her green eyes widening. “You lived in paradise and now you live in . . . Illinois?”

Nikki laughed. “My parents taught there for a few years, but now they have jobs here. You know what? I like it better here. I think I like the snow. Is that crazy?”

“
Kind
of crazy,” Aaron said thoughtfully. “Actually, no, I'd say mostly crazy.” Everyone laughed right as the doorbell rang.

“That's probably Todd,” Alice said, scrambling up. “I'll get it.” She was too busy looking over her shoulder to see how Nikki was getting on with the others that she didn't even bother looking out the front door before opening it. “Todd, thank goodness you're here or else—”

But it wasn't Todd. It was Cassidy, looking a little frantic, like a squirrel that had run into traffic—it was possible she wanted to bolt but wasn't sure which way to go. She stood in the entrance, her hands dangling awkwardly by her sides, the notebook clutched in one of them.

“Uh, hi,” Cassidy said. “I just wanted to bring by the notebook. I wrote a bunch in it today and figured you might want to read it tonight. I heard a bunch of voices inside. Um, what's going on?” she asked, craning her head to look into the house, where the noise of Aaron, Christy, and Nikki talking boisterously emanated from the kitchen.

“It's a Nerd Herd study group,” explained Alice.

“Hi, Cassidy!” Christy called, spying Cassidy in the doorway. Cassidy waved back, uncertainly.

“So, uh . . . ,” Alice said, not sure what she was supposed to do next.

“You do realize that . . . Nikki Wilcox is in your house,” whispered Cassidy. “Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah,” said Alice. “I had to invite her as part of the class, you know?” she said. “So she doesn't feel left out.” There was a whoop of laughter from the other room, which normally would be a good sound—Nikki and the Herd were having fun!—but right now, well, Alice
just looked like she was lying to Cass. Which she was.

“She sounds like she's doing okay,” Cass said. “Well, I guess I should go.”

“Okay,” said Alice helplessly, taking the notebook from her friend. She felt mean for not including Cassidy, but what would she get out of a study group for some classes she wasn't even in?

“Cass, wait,” Alice said suddenly.

“Yes?” Cassidy said, her eyebrows up hopefully.

“We're still having a sleepover tomorrow night, right?”

“Oh,” Cassidy said, leaning back. “Sure. Why wouldn't we?”

She turned away, and Alice watched as Cassidy headed across the street, back to her house, her hoop earrings swaying as she walked quickly.

“Hey, Alice,” Christy said, when Alice came back to the living room. “Nikki said her dad can get cheap tickets to Northwestern basketball games. Don't you think it would be fun if we all went as a group sometime?” Alice nodded. Her plan of incorporating Nikki into the Nerd Herd was going off without a hitch—but why did she feel so bad?

The morning before Cass was due to sleep over, Alice prepped for the perfect night. If it was a good night, she would feel better about the state of Cassidy's and her friendship. If not . . . she was worried that they might be drifting in separate directions for good. Alice got together all her manicure equipment, stacked up all the magazines she had in her room to pore over, gathered some materials for homemade facials, and added a few things to her mom's shopping list.

“What's this?” her mom asked, squinting at Alice's handwriting.

“Funfetti cake mix,” Alice said. “We're going to make cupcakes.”

“What's Funfetti?”

“It's like edible confetti,” Alice said. “Nikki told me about it. She had it when she was visiting her cousin
once. She says, ‘Funfetti is like a party in your mouth.'”

Mrs. Kinney laughed. “Hey, why don't you also invite Nikki over to the sleepover?”

“I can't do that!” Alice said, horrified.

“Why not?”

“Well, Nikki and Cassidy aren't exactly friends, Mom,” Alice said.

“How come?” Mrs. Kinney looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “They're both nice girls. They're both smart. They're both
your
friends. Aren't they both in ballet?”

“Um, well.” There was no way to sugarcoat it. “Cassidy thinks Nikki is stuck-up.”

“But Nikki's
not
stuck-up.”

“No.”

“So,” said Mrs. Kinney, “why can't you explain that to Cassidy? Or better yet, show her?”

“I just can't, Mom,” Alice said, sighing dramatically. Eventually she'd figure out a way to get Nikki and Cassidy to be friends, but first she had to tell Cassidy that she and Nikki were friends. Dragging Nikki over to the slumber party was obviously not the ideal way to break the news. Just imagine, Cassidy coming over to find Nikki already there.
“Surprise! It's a Nerd Herd ambush!”

“Doesn't Cassidy know you're friends with Nikki?”

Alice busied herself with drawing perfectly round bubbles all around the border of her mom's shopping list. “Umm . . .”

“So you have to sneak around and keep them separate?” her mom continued. “That doesn't seem like a very good plan.”

“Well, Mom, you just don't get it.” Alice said.

“I guess not. But this whole arrangement doesn't sound very
Funfetti
to me.”

Later that morning, after Mr. Nichols's class, the bell toned for class change.

“Hey, what are you doing tonight?” Nikki asked as she threw her books into her camouflage-printed book bag.

“Oh, hanging out with Cassidy,” Alice said, a little apologetically.

“Cool, can I come too?” Nikki said. Alice wished she could just say yes, but she was petrified that, unless she got the circumstances exactly right, the three girls would be like the vegetable oil, water, and corn syrup that the Nerd Herders had mixed together for Ms. Crawford's class: not blending at all.

“Um, I mean,” Alice said, stammering. “We . . . we're
going to this thing . . . at the mall. We have tickets.” Alice wanted to kick herself. She had never been to a “thing” at the mall in her life, aside from a shopping trip or a visit to see the mall's creepy young Santa Claus.

“A concert?” Nikki asked.

Alice nodded, hoping that Nikki wouldn't ask any more questions. She hated lying and she was pretty sure she sucked at it. “I think it's sold out?” she squeaked. But it was better than saying “My best friend just doesn't like you.”

“No worries,” Nikki said, holding her head up high and coolly flipping her long, dark curls over her shoulder. “I know you and Cassidy have been friends for forever. And I don't get the feeling she's my biggest fan, anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Alice said.

“Oh, I can just tell,” Nikki said. “She rolls her eyes sometimes when I have to bust out of ballet in a hurry to get home for my parents' crazy curfew. And I was in the bathroom with her the other day between classes, and she pretended like I was invisible.” Alice cringed inside, hearing that Cassidy could be mean like that, even if Cassidy didn't realize she was hurting Nikki's feelings.

“She's just nervous about the musical!” Alice said.

“Maybe she just needs to get to know me better,” Nikki said.

“Totally!” said Alice. That night, she resolved, she would try to get Cassidy to see the good side of Nikki.

“Well,” Nikki said as they parted ways in the hall. “Maybe sometime we can all hang out. Maybe even after my math meet in a few weeks! Anyway, have fun at the mall!” She trotted off, her long hair swinging down her back. Alice smiled weakly and told herself that by the end of the weekend, she'd have everything between the two girls sorted out and there would be no more need for lies.

“Say ‘fabulous'!” said Mrs. Kinney, stepping back and holding the camera up to her eye.

“Fab-u-lousss!” singsonged Alice and Cassidy in unison as Mrs. Kinney snapped a photo. And with that, another sleepover was officially under way. Ever since Alice and Cassidy's first sleepover, when Alice's mom had taken a photo of the girls in their pajamas hugging in front of the fireplace, the two had commemorated each sleepover with a photo in the same spot, filing them all in a special sleepover photo album.

The styles had changed, of course: the girls wore flannel pajama pants (pugs on Cassidy's, rainbows
on Alice's) and T-shirts instead of footie pj's, and their makeup skills had grown immensely since the first time they had dabbed at each other's faces with blush from old compacts that Mrs. Kinney had loaned them.

They were such suckers for tradition that once they had forgotten to take the picture, and two days later they reconvened in the same pajamas so they could re-create the moment. And of course, now, Alice felt like it was especially important to recapture the most awesome moments of their friendship, because if they had fun, maybe they'd be able to move past the weirdness of the last few weeks.

“Awesome,” said Cassidy, approving the picture on Mrs. Kinney's camera. “All that posing's made me hungry.”

“Are you ready for Funfetti?” Alice asked as they headed to the kitchen.

“I'm ready for Funfetti! I'm ready for Funfetti!” Cassidy chanted. Alice laughed. For the first time in what felt like forever, she and Cassidy were back to normal. The only trick, though, was how to approach the topic of Nikki without making things awkward.

The girls danced around to the pop radio station in the kitchen as they mixed up the cupcake batter.

“Very important question. What's your
ultimate
cupcake?” Cassidy asked.

“Hmm,” said Alice. “I would like to try a carrot cake cupcake someday.”

“That would be good,” said Cassidy. “I think my favorite still is a yellow cake cupcake with chocolate frosting.”

“Mmm, chocolate,” Alice said, licking a bit of icing off her finger. “Can you believe that Nikki Wilcox never had the chocolate chip pancakes at Walker Bros.—” She was going to finish saying “before I took her there last weekend?” But Cassidy interrupted her.

“Ugh, why, because she's on a
diet
?” said Cassidy, making a face.

“Um, no,” said Alice, searching for a subtle way to tell Cassidy about how she and Nikki had been hanging out lately, and how she'd gotten to know her, and how she was a sweet, caring person who just needed some extra confidence and friends and understanding. But it was hard to figure out how to kick that conversation off when Cassidy was already deep into a speech about how she couldn't deal with girls who refused to eat dessert.

“It's un-American!” she said, waving around a
wooden spoon for emphasis. “God put sweets on this planet for a reason—because they
taste good
. I don't trust people who don't eat chocolate! It's because she's in ballet, isn't it? That's so dumb. Madame Bernard is always telling us that we need to eat to
live and love and thrive
!” Cassidy waved the wooden spoon around like she was directing an orchestra performing a song about cupcakes.

Ding!
Saved by the bell. The kitchen timer went off just when Alice started to worry that Cassidy would accidentally smack her with the spoon.

“Oooh, yummy,” Cassidy breathed in the vanilla scent as Alice carefully pulled out the hot muffin tin with one of her mom's old oven mitts. The girls busied themselves with mixing up the icing, and Alice thought how it was funny that Nikki's favorite cupcake was the only thing that got Cassidy to stop talking about how much she didn't like Nikki.

With the cupcakes finally iced and the sprinkles sprinkled on top of the icing, the girls took a plate and settled into the squishy dark green couch in the Kinneys' den to watch
The Princess Bride
, an old movie Mrs. Kinney had introduced them to years ago and they watched every sleepover, even though they knew every line.

“Do you think we'll ever get sick of this movie?” Alice asked.

“I'll get sick of it when I get sick of these,” Cassidy said, peeling the wrapper off her second cupcake. “That is to say, in a thousand years to never.” The movie, the pajamas, the cupcakes, the old striped afghan the girls cuddled under: the night was the perfect old-school sleepover—just about.

Right when the handsome Westley was about to stand up to the evil (and weird-looking) Prince Humperdinck, though, the phone rang.

“Not now!” Cassidy yelled. “This is one of my twelve favorite parts!” Alice grinned. Her mom would normally grab the phone, but she happened to glance over at the caller ID display on the end table next to Cassidy's side of the sofa. It read, in letters that seemed twelve feet high,
WILCOX
.

Aargh!
If her mom answered, she'd announce to Alice that Nikki was on the line or, even worse, suggest that Alice invite her over. Clearly, Cassidy wasn't ready to hear that Alice and Nikki were buddies, so Alice was left with only one thing to do: perform an acrobatic feat and lunge over to the phone to silence the ringer.

“Ow!” Cassidy laughed after Alice threw herself
over Cassidy and silenced the ring. “What the heck was that all about?”

“Telemarketers, always ruining the best parts of movies!” Alice cried.

Cassidy laughed. “Maybe
you
should be in ballet, with moves like that.” Alice smiled and settled back in for the rest of the movie. Truth be told, her hip hurt a little bit from throwing herself across the couch, but at least she wasn't trying to explain to Cassidy why Nikki was calling.

Once the movie ended, the girls split one last cupcake along with some milk before getting ready for bed.

Cassidy turned around and leaned against the counter after wiping off her milk mustache. “So, I know I probably don't even have to ask you this, but . . . you're coming to the opening night of the musical on the tenth, right?”

“What?” Alice said. “Of course I am. I wouldn't dream of missing it.”

“Okay,” Cassidy said. “Phew. You've been so busy lately, I wasn't sure you'd make it. You know how to buy tickets, right?” Cassidy prattled on, excitedly telling Alice when the box office would be open for her to buy a ticket and when best to arrive in order to get a
good seat and where specifically in the theater to sit. Alice tuned out, because somehow that date sounded familiar, but she wasn't sure exactly why.

Before she could get her thoughts together, Cassidy grabbed Alice by the shoulders. “I don't think I could go out onstage Friday night if I didn't know you were there. I kind of have a big part for someone who just tried out for the first time, and if I do well, who knows, maybe I'll get the lead next time! So I'm excited, but nervous! I'm glad you'll be there rooting for me.”

She squeezed Alice's arm and, with a smile, sauntered off to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Friday night.
Alice took her time rinsing off her plate, depositing it in the dishwasher.

Friday night.
Alice wiped the crumbs off the marble countertop and dropped them into the sink.

Friday night.
Alice switched off the lights underneath the kitchen cabinets.

What was it, exactly, about the night of Friday, November tenth, that was sticking in Alice's mind?

OMIGOSH. The math meet!
Nikki's math meet—which Alice had already promised she'd attend—was the same night as the musical!

“You coming or what, slowpoke?” she heard Cassidy call from her bedroom. “I've got beach-luau theme
makeup that's just begging for a face to be put on, but
I'm
already doing bright sunflower, so bring your head in here!”

It's okay,
Alice coached (and maybe lied to) herself.
I just have to figure out how to be in two places at the same time!

“Just have to brush my teeth!” Alice called. She took her time walking to her bathroom, which was done up with black-and-white tiles and black-and-white wallpaper to match. She was going to have to figure out a way to act like she wasn't freaking out about what she'd just realized. Lying wasn't fun. And ironically, while she was doing it to try to save both Nikki's and Cassidy's feelings, she was having less fun with both of them because of it.

But what could she do about it? Tell Cassidy about her friendship with Nikki and possibly stay up all night fighting about it? Or tell Nikki, “I know I promised you I would go to your thing, but I can't after all, and P.S., I can't even let Cassidy see me talking to you in the hall”? No, Alice couldn't do either of those things. All she could do was brush her teeth and hope the minty fresh taste would help brush away her bad feelings.

When she finally got to her bedroom, Cassidy was
primping in the mirror, perfecting her cat's-eye with liquid eyeliner.